1986 VFR Restoreof Japanes import

Looking real good. Don't know if your exhaust clamp clocking is finalized, but the lower one should be rotated so the bolt heads are pointing straight down, inboard. As it sits, it could likely touch down in a mid corner bump.

 

Good to know. Tx. Yeah. Havnt got to starting her yet, need tk check the carbs and get liquids done... subframe is another 2 weeks away and bodywork even further so got time

 

Gorgeous....nice work!

 

Cap, I am really jelous of this frame work??? How?? Spray, polish? re-anodize?

 

Mequiars Fine Cut Cleaner and then Cleaner/Wax. Don't want to try and get thru the anodizing, just polish away the staining and then give it some protection. After that just some cleaner/wax applications as needed on the visible main rails and side plates.

In person there is still some discolorization/staining here and there, but looks pretty darn good for an original finish. The frames were both fairly ugly to begin with.

 

Cool, will try that, I Cleaned and painted over the hidden, very rough areas but want to try preserve the original finish as much as possible, but this bike was stored outside i imagine as I have hundreds of black specks peeking throught the anodizing and they are incredibly difficult to get rid of, tried a dremel with small wire brush, but it just chowed through the anodizing making it look even worse

 

Open to suggestions.... Went to bleed front brake today, spent about an hour on it and Nothing. I get a weak dribble out the calipers.

Replaced caliper seals, all pistons are now good, cleaned caliper seal slots. The pistons went in, not easily, but still , by hand.
Master cylinder was taken apart and cleaned. Was getting a pffft from it when putting my thunb over the hose hole and pumping.
Initially i had a few small bubbles at the MC
Put a clear hose (Nipple width) over caliper nipple and held in lever, i get a slow rise of brake fluid, on both calipers.

Says to me air in system? Unbolted everything and shook the pipes and calipers, ,
Made the banjo fittings the highest point on the calipers, connector fitting and lowest on MC,No bubbles appearing at MC.

The level doesnt seem to drop at all

It is slightly possible i put the rubbers on incorrectly on the MC piston? Wouldn't that cause leaks?
No leaks at the moment
No movement on the unbolted calipers(i can watch the pistons)
I read on here i could be the spring clip behind the pads... possible but there would be pressure at the MC no?

I have left it with the lever ziptied to the bar , hoping i get something

But i am kinda out of ideas, and tearing whats left of my hair out

Got the clutch bled tho, so there is that

Running DOT 4

 

BTDT....frustrating indeed!

In my case I still had air in the system. I remember tapping on the brake line fitting as it exits the MC and kept seeing air coming up inside the MC (I kept the top off so I could see if I had bubbles).

Also, I use speed bleeders and feel they make it easier to bleed. Have a clear bag & tube hooked up to collect the fluid as it exits the caliper.

Keep tapping stuff - eventually the air will rise, is my only advice.....

Also, I find very slow lever action works better than fast.

 

Thanks Bazza.

Went down to the shed, still no joy. Bled and pumped ,but no movementon the brake ppistons.
Took of calipers and the pads are moving freely

Took the MC off again, made sure the small hole under the stainless cover was free(Return hole?) , blew them with brake cleaner, Both Free.

BUT, looking at the Schematic it appears im missing a washer as my spring goes straight into the cylinder?

Grasping at straws here?

 

Not sure if that washer is the problem, but a couple thoughts in the meantime....

Have you confirmed your brake line is not clogged?

Also, for only $33 you can get these from Amazon. They fit perfectly and come in handy when you are trying to get your hydraulics back in order and want to eliminate the possibility of the MC portion as an issue.

Later on you can swap the OEM version(s) back in if you want.

Triumilynn 7/8 Inch 22mm Brake Clutch Master Cylinder for Honda Yamaha Suzuki Kawasaki, 7/8" Handlebar for Universal Motorcycle - Left & Right

 

Thanks Bazza. Gave serious consideration to those master cylinders...but gave it another bash
In brief

Took calipers apart again. Fkd up paint.. resprayed it again.back in oven.
Pistons out...again...seals out again
Clean
Fluid through hoses.clean

spare set of calipers....pistons out..measure..


master cylinder dissasemble. reassemble

Reassemble whole lot

Bleed bleed bleed. Finally i have brakes

Was a combination of shaking the helloutta lines. Rubber mallet on base of calipers.

Finally got the air bubbles out.

Left the brake lever pulled in for overnight and will see if it gets even harder...but very hapoy with what i got.

Pistons on the spare set were unbelivable.
Compressed air..no go. Couldnt get a gear puller in there so had to improvise


what a ballache, but at least i know the brakes are good... clutch good.
Back breakes are next...

but tommorrow weather is too good to not be riding...

 

Woohoo.....NICE WORK, TD!

So it was just the air bubbles that caused the issue all along?

Regarding getting the pistons out -0 of course using hydraulics is ideal (hook up to rear brake line and push on brake pedal) but if you're using air - try using higher air pressure. I've also tapped on the pistons first (downward direction into the caliper) just to make sure they're broken free. The use of Kroil or any kind of penetrate or lubricant (even WD40) also helps. Even brake fluid, I guess.

With enough air pressure - they should pop right out! (Danger Will Robinson...danger!)

 

When I've entirely rebuilt stuff like that I tend to pump the pistons out as far as they'll go before they pop out, flick/tap the lines repeatedly, leave for an hour and then push the pistons all the way back in while holding the caliper so that any air would be forced out of the banjo fitting rather than collecting anywhere. That way you're moving the fluid in the direction the air naturally wants to go rather than the normal way of bleeding where it's all to easy to send many (small) bubbles "down" the line.

Then clamp the lever overnight and if not happy repeat again. Unsure on the 86/87 but on the 88/89 you can push the pads back without even removing the calipers.

Also beware of any high points when you're bleeding, sometimes you can end up with the upper banjo being higher than the res if the bars are in the wrong position for example.

 

On Joe Nelson's V4 Dreams website brake caliper rebuild tutorial, he uses wooden paint stir sticks as a way of controlling how far the pistons move outward. Start with several pieces and remove one at a time as they move outward. Thought that was a handy tip!

https://v4dreams.com/maintenance.html (#23)

 

I've always used a spanner!

 

I think the idea is less potential for marring of the pistons by using the wood sticks. Also they are practically free and you can stack them as needed - almost like using an adjustable wrench!

 

Yip. The next step was going to have entire system pegged to a board with banjos going consecutivly higher.

The lathe thing was a spare set of calipers i had, and i didn't want to the whole route of bleading them to get pistons out, only to redo with the sprayed calipers(lazy)

Im going to prep the spare calipers meanwhile ,in case i revisit.

Appreciate the help...the brake thing was bugging the hell outta me, but i figured you guys would have mentioned anything obviously wrong, so it was a matter of persevering

 

Just reread this.... nice!

Sticking this in the book of tricks...

Couple more questions going foreward

Anyone used a led bulb? I had to respray the reflector , so hoping to increase light output with a passive cooled led?

 

99% of the LED's are utterly crap. They throw more light but randomly around rather than actually where it needs to go to reflect off the reflector. Add to that and bluer light looks brighter/more dazzling even when its not as "bright" and you can end up with worse visibility than with a "normal" halogen.

Also, unless you've changed the reg/rec you don't actually want to _reduce_ the power usage. You really want the regulator bit of the reg/rec to be doing as little shunting as possible, that gives both your stator and your reg/rec the longest life!

All that said, I have an LED bulb in mine. I spent ages looking for one, I can't remember what it is and more importantly I've never ridden it in the dark since I fitted it!

I will go have a look next time I'm in the garage to see what it was (it was a car kit so a pair of bulbs).

 

Appreciated. I rekon i can mess with it further once its on the road, will see how bad the light output is first